Flight operations at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport faced substantial interruptions on Friday morning following a serious malfunction in the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system, leading to delays for over 400 flights. Officials noted that the problem stemmed from a failure in the Automatic Message Switching System (AMSS), which provides vital flight plan information to the Auto Track System (ATS). The Airports Authority of India (AAI) reported that controllers have had to manage flight plans manually, which has slowed down operations and caused congestion. AAI indicated that technical teams are working swiftly to rectify the issue and requested passengers’ cooperation during the restoration of the system.
As India’s busiest airport, with more than 1,500 daily aircraft movements, IGIA began experiencing major delays starting Thursday afternoon around 3 pm. Flight-tracking service Flightradar24 recorded 513 delays on Thursday, while Friday saw 313 late departures and 118 delayed arrivals. Morning departures were nearly an hour behind schedule and increasing. Officials emphasized that such system failures are uncommon, and manually processing each step before takeoff has resulted in considerable disarray within Delhi ATC. Delays are anticipated to persist until the AMSS issue is entirely resolved. Airlines have also issued advisories. IndiGo reported that the disruptions in Delhi’s ATC system were affecting flights throughout northern India and encouraged passengers to check for updates on its website.
Air India expressed regret for the inconvenience and recommended travelers verify their flight status prior to arriving at the airport.